cook

food service worker

housekeeper

executive chef

dishwasher

COMPASS

Compass chefs came in after a long period of time without one at the helm. And they entered without the slightest idea of how to build stronger customer connections and without any interest in connecting with the team―you know, those people who are preparing food for patients and hospital staff. 

For the better part of last 2 years into 2022, the workforce has been going through a major transition with many employees heading for the exits. 

The reasons are obvious, yet this employer continues to struggle to fill vacant spots and keep staff. Much of it has to do with a lack of empathy. Read that as actual leadership acumen. 

Much of what needs to be done to get employees to stick around has to be put in place way before they have one foot out the door. Pizza and donuts are not the way to sustain employee engagement.

Clueless employers say 'No one wants to work'. The truth is no one wants to work for you. If I can become part of the gig economy or get paid my worth elsewhere, and elevate my quality of life, why would I want to tolerate an unsustainable paycheck and a sloppy culture from you?

We've all seen them on our first day at a new job―corporate values. Companies talk about them with words like 'collaboration', 'teamwork', 'purpose', 'respect’…and they go on and on.

Unfortunately, like motivational posters in the lobby, they might make the wall less bland, but they're not doing much else if you're not practicing what you preach. Employees want respect. We want to feel valued and we want to be mentored.

Transformational leaders change people through engagement and they engage with knowledge, expertise, and vision. 

Supervisors here attempt to maintain the lame position, without any credibility, that “we’re all the same” then baby sit those who evade work, escape their job responsibilities, and intentionally block the way of people who are sincerely fulfilling and tackling their work every day.

You can’t both have “all the same” and maintain double standards. 

You cannot have equals and enable and coddle bad employees. 

Management are setting a precedent that good performance and showing up every day has no meaning. 

People who disrupt the work environment cause a slow and painful deterioration to both employee loyalty and effort. 

Some will hang in there with you, but some see this as a personal affront to their work-day and work-life.

You’ll see people do less, because they’ve figured out that working hard isn’t a worthy approach in this company.

Culture is the result of all of the different decisions that are made in a business that all compound together to produce how a business acts. So stop the “we’re a family” nonsense. 

The best companies aren't families. They're supporters of families. Allies of families. They provide healthy, fulfilling work environments so that when workers get home, they're great family members to their actual family.

The main value ought to be ‘’to treat all your colleagues, patients, and cafeteria customers as you would treat your family and friends”. Value attitude over skills. Prioritize internal growth and professional development. Welcome talent and groom them. Focus on consistency in a warm and friendly environment. Believe we can strive if we all work closely together. There is no such focus here to ensure a great employee experience.

Nitpicking, micromanaging, and gaslighting employees are not values. Poor involvement with the group, low accountability, and passivity are not the building blocks of corporate culture.

What so-called “leaders” do here is play a part. The future of work is human centric. At its center is the acceptance that authentic leadership is not and never has been about title, position, or role. It's also not based on poor listening, gaslighting employees, talking “team” and “team work” to justify pushing the work of unproductive employees on the ones who are working efficiently.

Which brings us to Communicating With vs. Talking At

Communication is about imparting information; "talking at" is about stating thoughts and feelings designed to impart demands, requirements, authority, and instructions. 

"Talking at" has little interest in the receiver beyond compliance.

Communication is designed to be understood by everyone. It is collaborative expression intent on discovering and uncovering; it’s about creativity, and understanding.

There is much more involved in communication than just speaking. 

Communication is the term with the broadest meaning and refers to engaging a message between a sender and a receiver because true communication is focused on connection. 

The ability to communicate therefore allows for independence and more importantly it leads to quality of life and an improved quality of your team’s work-life.

When you consider how you use your language on a daily basis, you will find that one way is to go beyond conveying your preferences and desires and to instead to communicate with the purposeful intention of improving employee engagement, enablement, and empowerment. 

None of this is achieved by this company and they need to get with it.

When I first started at Butter field Trail Village working for Compass Group management was excellent and had a wonderful work environment. In fact had it stayed that way I wouldn't hesitate to give it 5 starts even though pay was lacking. Towards the end of 2015 a huge meeting was called due to the low pay and many complaints. The dining room supervisor announces to everyone an increase in the pay everyone will receive and the date it will be put into effect, the other announcement was that the supervisor would be relocated and management will be changing shortly. New management came in after a few months and the first thing they did is change everything about the job including, uniform, food recipe, etc. Much of it was actually an improvement. The date the original supervisor promised our pay would be increased came and went without a word. The pay was so low that many people were talking about leaving and everyone quickly realized the pay increase was a lie in order to keep workers from quitting. I addressed the new supervisor with this issue and was told that meeting never took place and their was never any promise for a pay increase. Naturally many people quit and still nothing was done about the pay. I continued to work there anyways because I loved working with the residents of the retirement home, But I was one of the few. The supervisor made countless promises that more workers would be hired soon and I held onto that hope. In order to properly run the dining room 6 servers were required, one host, and 1 lead server. for months we didn't even have that, we constantly were doubling up on our work having to take on 2 sections and double side and closing duties. It was work nobody could have done well. Residents constantly complained there wasn't enough workers and to everyone it was blatantly obvious that was due to the low pay and high stress job. This got so bad that one day I was literally the only worker there. I had to Host and serve 6 sections. I was attempting to do a 7 person job by myself. Instead of the supervisor finding me help I was pulled aside was told I was at fault for not telling them I needed help. Knowing it was entirely their fault for not paying their workers properly and not hiring more workers I was furious. But I swallowed my pride and apologized for not doing my job correctly. The work continued like this for some time and eventually I was able to convince the supervisor the reason no one would work there is because the awful pay. I was promoted and got an increase in pay and all front of house also got increased pay. over time more people started applying and worked there. The problem was they still had workers doing double the work they should have and not many people lasted long. I was full of stress at this point and put my hopes in that place for a long time. I was constantly put down by the supervisor and blamed for the fault of the company. The last straw for me was the supervisor came up to me and told me I look stupid and should go get a new tie. They proceeded to tell me Its not that big of a deal and can get one for super cheap at Walmart if I can afford even that. I said ill try to get one after work if that is the case. About a hour later he saw I still didn't have a tie on and screamed in my face asking "Do you even care about your job?"  After busting my butt for them and putting my hopes in them when they lied to me over and over, I was asked if i even care about my job because I didn't have a tie on. Without saying a word I wrote my two weeks and handed it to the Supervisor. They responded that they will accept it now and Ill be escorted off the premises Immediately.  The best part of this job was leaving it.

Starting out it was a nice place to work, although there were several red flags that I chose in good faith to interpret as "well they're transitioning..." at first. 

The Operational Chefs that came in to facilitate the contract transition were all incredible. They were knowledgeable, supportive, and passionate about their chosen profession. The Executive Chef that was hired on was the complete opposite of the example that the Operational Chefs gave. The ECs management style was out of date. They were rude and demoralizing and spent most of their time complaining to anyone that listened (whether or not they wanted to) about the list of things they have to do (which is why they couldn't answer a simple question or concern from you), rather than doing the smart thing and utilizing that time to plan things with your team and get things done. I have spent several years working for great chefs that were able to exceed goals and expectations, develop cooks into chefs, and not be abusive to staff or display any of the behavior that the EC at this community did.

The staff were lied to about numerous things. I will use holiday pay as an example. We were told we would be getting double pay and even got a speech from the EC about how working holidays was great as it was one of the few times in this industry that good money was made. When this didn't reflect on our paychecks were told Unidine doesn't offer holiday pay during the first 90 days.

Staff were also lied to about pay schedules. Supposedly bi-weekly, our first paychecks arrived at the end of the month for working starting at the beginning of the month, and roughly 9 days after we were told they would arrive. The paychecks also had no breakdown about hourly rates or taxes and had to be audited to find out that not only were they missing quite a few hours, they were paid under the initial negotiated rate. It took one of the Operational Chefs to finally get the paycheck problems sorted out as the dietary manager seemed to have little to no interest or motivation in doing anything other than chatting with anyone within sight or hanging out in their office.

Any raises earned and negotiated were not reflected on paychecks and management had to be constantly badgered to get corrections made. The corrected paychecks were then issued weeks later with no breakdown.

Scheduling constantly fluctuated.

One particularly sour point for me was during a "line up" meeting before a service one day, the regional manager was speaking and emphasized safety being priority and gave an example of an employee at a fast food restaurant using too much of a chemical to clean the floors and asphyxiating themselves. This is obviously a preventable tragedy. After the manager was done speaking and another began to speak, they then took a step back and bit their lip as they visibly suppressed laughter about the story that they just told. Thinking about this still makes me disgusted.

Overall the pay was a little above average for the area but the catch was being constantly understaffed. The other cooks in the department were all great hard working people as were the staff at the community that the kitchen operated in. It's a shame that incompetent management and shady payroll practices spoiled it.

There is never a typical day with this company, which on the surface, would appear to be a good thing (in other organizations it is fun and exciting).  It is not.  You have a defined role which changes constantly without warning or explanation, but you will never get the time to catch up or even get the proper training.  God forbid that you make a mistake as upper management will jump down your throat (and continue to bring up these past mistakes over and over and over and over, but will never, EVER be supportive enough to assist you in over coming them.  They just use them against you.).  Even when you try to settle into a rhythm, there are constant crises and worthless projects thrown at you with either no direction at all as to the expectations or conflicting communications regarding process or expected outcomes.  Don't be surprised though, when you follow directions exactly to meet or exceed expectations, and either they move the goal posts ridiculously far from where you are at the last minute or you get a really nasty email that your efforts were terrible.  The end-game: it is never enough.

Let's talk about training.  (What's that?)  You sort of get trained but the systems are so arcane, dated and backwards that it is a tough learning curve.  The people who train are either so busy with their own insane work load or are really not good at their jobs in the first place or don't care themselves about the place (apathetic) that you really don't get any training other than the basics.  It's sink or swim on steroids.  (But don't ask for help...you won't get it, so you realize quickly that it is a lose/lose situation.)(Oh, and again, don't make mistakes even though you are terribly overworked and undertrained.)

Work/life balance: None.  You get a paltry amount of time off.  Zero flexibility.  Emails at all hours and weekends (and God forbid you take longer than 1 hour to respond) which are often petty and always have a condescending tone.  When you do take time off or have complaints, expect to get retaliated against for being gone (they do have an Anti-Bullying Policy but it is obvious that it is rarely enforced for upper managers and don't ever go to HR to complain...it will just lead to more retaliation).  They "say" to take your time off...but it never works out well.  There is no down-time and turnover/retention is a huge problem (I wonder why???)

Review process: In the years that I was with the company they jumped up and down every year to get year end reviews completed early, but you never actually get to sit down with anyone to discuss yours, get feedback, or even understand what is going on or expected.  They also use a demoralizing, industrial revolution-era style of "counseling" (also known as write-ups).  Again, instead of helping people get better, it is really just an oppressive, demeaning way to manage people.

Advancement is a joke.  They say that you "can" move up but unless you are one of the "golden children" (some of whom are great BS artists but were the worst or most unqualified employees/managers I had ever worked with), you'll never get anywhere. 

One could go on and on.  (Don't ever expect to feel appreciated or supported.  In 4 years with the company, I remember feeling appreciated or respected only a handful of times.)  Really at the end of the day, you hear "that's the Compass way".  It is sad because it could be an even more powerful company that is wildly successful, but it just falls so short.

What is the best part of working at the company?
$1 off per gallon on gas, a free meal during your shift, and your co-workers. (Mostly)

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Everything else. The points system is punitive and unreasonable, the amount of stress is high, we're constantly being asked to do more with less. The new management group doesn't care about the employees, the company, or the guests. It will run that place into the ground if the Tribe isn't careful. Constant and ridiculous levels of scrutiny and suspicion. They don't act quickly enough to replace lost personnel, and someone can be let go unexpectedly because of the points system. To get any illness approved you have to complete the official FMLA process with the Federal Government. Cage management focuses of micromanaging and doesn't make sure employees are supported and trained properly once they get past the basic cashier training. 
I could keep going forever. Everyone is always looking for something else that isn't as soul crushing. They want high-end bank teller skills while paying lower than your average convenience store wages. Meanwhile, you get to watch part-time (!!!!) Slot attendants and Dealers make 6-figure paychecks because of their tips. And who counts and deposits their tips? Who stocks the machines that they take money from? Who sends chips to their tables so they can keep their games going? The Cage. You might say just go be a dealer, or slot attendant then. Right? Positions come up rarely, hundreds of people apply internally for them, and you have to be in nearly perfect standing regarding the points system to transfer to a different department. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The new management company has made changes that have resulted in less security, poorer customer service, lack of man-power and an over-all decline in the attitude of the employees. They purged a bunch of security personnel, only to have to turn around and hire about a third back.  Because of the time it takes to get a gaming license from the state, it can take at least three months to replace the people we lose. But they wait until the Cage is floundering to start the hiring process.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
As a front-line cashier on a busy Friday night the line will last for your whole 8 or 10 hour shift. Guests can expect to wait for at least 20 minutes to get their cash advances. ATM and credit card rates were also increased. The management who made this decision do not have to deal with the fallout regarding this decision. The cashiers do. Restocking the money machines on the Gaming Floor is more complicated, while they also increased the number of machines. However they did not increase the number of employees working on those machines. The level of security on the ATMs was also increased, so more people are denied money from the ATMs and sent to the Cage, resulting in even MORE traffic to the Cage. Some shifts have been so short staffed that supervisors have had to cover positions in the back while also fulfilling their duties in the front.

As a former employee of Levy Restaurants, I feel compelled to share my honest and concerning experience working there. My time at Levy was marred by a pervasive culture of unethical business practices and gross incompetence within the management team. Here's a breakdown of my experience:

A typical day at work: A typical day at Levy Restaurants was rife with frustration and disappointment. Instead of focusing on providing quality service and fostering a positive work environment, the management team was more concerned with cutting corners and maximizing profits at the expense of employee well-being and customer satisfaction.

What I believe I learned: Despite the toxic environment, my experience at Levy Restaurants taught me valuable lessons about integrity, professionalism, and the importance of standing up against unethical behavior. It reinforced the importance of working for companies that prioritize ethical conduct and treat their employees with respect.

Management: The management at Levy Restaurants was nothing short of appalling. Both of my bosses, along with their so-called "management" team, demonstrated a shocking lack of understanding of basic business principles and failed to address the concerns of their employees. Their incompetence and disregard for ethical standards ultimately tarnished the reputation of the entire organization.

Workplace culture: The workplace culture at Levy Restaurants was toxic and demoralizing. Instead of fostering a collaborative and supportive environment, employees were constantly undermined and undervalued. The pervasive sense of distrust and disillusionment made it nearly impossible to thrive or find satisfaction in our work.

The hardest part of the job: The hardest part of working at Levy Restaurants was navigating the constant barrage of unethical practices and mismanagement. It was disheartening to witness the blatant disregard for ethical standards and the well-being of employees, making it increasingly challenging to maintain morale and motivation.

The most enjoyable part of the job: Despite the numerous challenges, the most enjoyable part of my job at Levy Restaurants was interacting with customers and providing them with exceptional service. Despite the shortcomings of the management team, I took pride in delivering quality service and making a positive impact on the customer experience.

In conclusion, my experience at Levy Restaurants was marred by unethical business practices, incompetent management, and a toxic work environment. I strongly advise potential employees and customers to steer clear of this company until they address these systemic issues and prioritize ethical conduct and employee well-being.

** Also, they do not conduct legal background checks, so it is really easy to get a job there, so I guess that is an upside lol. **

The work itself is incredibly easy and self-explanatory. However, I was constantly doing the work of 2-3 people because 

1) It's NORMAL for no one to show up to work
2) They fired almost everyone (most for good reasons) before they hired replacements
3) People are hired out of desperation, no matter how incompetent, mental, or even criminal they are. I'm hesitating to write much else because I can be identified if I share any stories. But it's normal for people to get hired, ghost, or get hired and survive 2 days. Very few survive a month. I have yet to see them hire a decent server who wasn't referred by me. They are all terrible, rude, low IQ, mentally unstable, manipulative, and have no business working around old people. It takes a "special" type of person to enjoy working this job, yet 99% of the people they hire shouldn't even have jobs. We've had to call the cops on several temp servers... think twice before putting your parents in retirement homes.

In addition to the lack of competent employees, you have horrible management. Every other week they screw up someone's paycheck. The people behind live chat have no idea what they're doing and type with the grammatical accuracy of 10 year olds. There's no clear chain of command and the people who should be in charge are too burnt out to do anything whenever anything happens. Which is all the time. But worst of all...

There's SO. MUCH. DRAMA. 

I didn't even have this much drama in middle school. Every day I came back from my days off I wondered what else could have happened? Again, special type of person to work the job, and even management doesn't really fit the type... 

I felt suicidal working there and needless to say I quit.

---

Now...the job isn't entirely bad. There are some pros. 

- I've met some great people at work. The chefs tend to be more mentally stable than the servers for whatever reason. The nursing staff are okay too.
- 90% of the residents are super nice and most of them recognize you're basically a martyr for working the job that no one wants. They'll thank you for being there every day. You'll become friends with some of them--they're like your grandparents. 
- You get a lot of free food. I've seen people who very obviously took the job for it (because all they do is stand around and eat while you do their job).
- The pay isn't "bad" for the industry. I've noticed it slowly raising because it's so hard for them to find good workers. If you're an actual good waiter/waitress, you would be working at a restaurant making 60k+, not at a retirement home where you can't accept tips. But the pay is high for a fast food worker. 
- The insurance is decent. Abuse it while you can because I have yet to see anyone survive long enough for insurance to kick in. 


Would I ever work for this company again? No. 
I have enough fond memories of that place. I don't need anymore.

Field Accounting at Compass Group is like no other accounting position you have ever had or will probably will have again.  It's a marriage of Customer Service and Accounting, Trainer and sometimes Therapist.  A large part of the job is supporting managers in the field with their use of the financial system to ensure financial data for their operations is entered correctly. The field accountant is also a liason between the field managers and virtually every other corporate department - payroll, IT, Accounts Payable, Treasury, etc. And when I say liason -- I mean that the Field Accountant basically has to handle all of those issues for the field, because many other corporate departments are insulated from much of the direct field contact.  Everything is filtered through the Field Accountant for assistance / resolution.  Doesn't sound too bad?  Perhaps it wouldn't be, if the work load assigned by management were reasonable.  A Field Accountant may have between 150 - 200 units assigned to him/her. Of course not every unit is as complex as others -- some units require little interaction, and don't require as much hands on involvement, while other units require a great deal of interaction with the Field Accountant each week.  It's not an easy job. It's downright difficult a lot of days.  There's a great of turn over in the department.  It's not for everyone. But the upside is that it's a difficult department to work in within a GREAT company.  There's so much to learn within Field Accounting about operations, about processes within the other corporate departments that you interface with daily in the course of the job, that after some time in the position (if you tough it out), you can move UP into other areas within the company.  Those opportunities do exist, and you are encouraged to do so.  To work in the Field Accounting role, you have to like people, and you have to like being on the phone helping non-financial managers perform financial tasks. And you have to be able to do that in a nice way. You also have to have the accounting skills to do the account reconciliations and journal entries -- all the "normal" accounting stuff that you would expect an associate accounting position to encompass. It's fast-paced, it's high volume, it's with a group of ever-changing associates.  Work-life balance is a huge challenge.  But if you like a challenge, and you are looking for somewhere you can grow your skill set with a great company that you can advance with, it's worth considering.

You’re hired for one specific job, and then they expect you to just fill in for any and every other job amidst doing your own; and you will be called lazy and belittled for questioning why you have to help when no one will help you. (They will tell you it’s everyone’s job to do everything but you will notice that is not the Case very quickly) 

They do not allow 40 hour work weeks. 
Max of 37; and most of the time you won’t even get that. 

They do not offer holiday pay(and you do not get holidays off either- unless they happen to match your schedule they give you)- their reason is they offer $2 more for working weekends, but only about 6 employees get to work weekends and they are already pre-chosen prior to your hiring(as they are employees that already have that schedule) and it doesn’t change. To allow others to get the increase. 

They have unrealistic expectations for you missing work; your allowed 7 days total. (5 is a coaching, 6 is a write up, 7 is termination) and the day only resets on your record a year after the day you called out; not a calendar year. The only exception to this is vacation days; however you aren’t allowed vacation days until you’ve worked enough time to get them. (Every month you work full shifts amounts to about 5 minutes of vacation time.) if you take vacation outside of the time it counts against you. As it’s “unexcused”. (They don’t care if you have children, animals, family, or yourself to take care of in the real world; only wether or not you were at work making THEM money) 

The insurance benefits you think would be fantastic for working in a hospital; incorrect. You do not work for the hospital with this company; it’s third party. The insurance premiums are EXTREMELY HIGH for the bare minimum benefits with fairly high copays and deductibles. 

The blessing of this job is the people you get to know and the doors it can open if your willing to suffer in the mean time!
I’ve met some WONDERFUL humans (coworkers and patients alike) that will continue to grow with me on my journey every day here on out. 

— it’s not the worst job but there are more cons than pros for sure. 

A typical day at Compass Group is a bit of a challenge. From prepping the meals to dealing with college students. During the work week (Monday through Friday) in a position such as mine, you'd get a three and a half hour day, on the weekends it would eat up your entire weekend. I found this to be very inconvenient, but beggars can't be choosers. The typical day you'd prep the food lines, and "slide" student ID's so that the students could eat their meal(s). After you got your students in you'd have to clean tables through out the meals so they'd have a clean surface to eat off of. At the end of the meal you'd then have to clean up the entire dining hall. 

I learned not to take your co-workers word that the manager said that it was okay to go home and they would take over. ALWAYS ask your manager! It was my first job, so this slip up along with other attendance issues had lost me this job. I also learned how to manage my time better because you only had about half an hour to set up all of the food lines and food bars.

The management was good. Really good. My manager here knew how to be a leader rather than a boss. If you thought about it I actually answered to three. The manager, the head chef and the accountant. My chef was a fun guy who would teach you techniques if you didn't know them, like how to julienne a pepper for example. The accountant had to make sure I counted my drawer properly.

My co-workers were another story. While I loved working with a lot of them, the rest of them acted like they were still in elementary school even though we were supposed to be adults. Rumors, back stabbing, and bullying went on behind the scenes. I know this because I was the victim of a lot of it. There were a few, like the pastry chef and the prep cook that were good to me.

The hardest part of the job was a toss up between the students and some of my meaner co-workers. It wasn't even the work itself that was that difficult. I would have rather shut out all of the social drama and worked on prepping the salad bar. The most enjoyable part was the caterings, while they were difficult to do they were fun. We had a wedding we catered for and it had to have been one of the funnest days I had at work.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Cook 81 salaries reported	$18.37 per hour
Food service worker 73 salaries reported	$17.06 per hour
Housekeeper 76 salaries reported	$15.64 per hour
Executive chef 18 salaries reported	$79,771 per year
Dishwasher 47 salaries reported	$14.71 per hour

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